The present invention relates to fine particles of an inorganic material, particularly to a mass of such inorganic fine particles and a method of providing such mass, an ultrathin film made from the mass of inorganic fine particles and a method of making such ultrathin film, a magnetic recording medium and a method of providing the magnetic recording medium and a method of manufacturing a pattern of an inorganic material (hereinafter referred to as inorganic pattern) and a method of manufacturing a wiring of an inorganic material (hereinafter referred to as inorganic wiring).
Hitherto, the mass of inorganic fine particles have been widely used as a wiring material, working material, recording material and printing material. A magnetic recording material and a method of making it will be illustrated below as one of the prior techniques.
In general, prior methods of making the magnetic recording mediums comprises steps of dispersing fine particles of a magnetic inorganic material into a synthetic resin as binder to prepare a magnetic paint and coating a thin and uniform layer of the magnetic paint onto a substrate to form a recording layer. Furthermore, in order to increase the coersive force of the medium, the methods may include a step of coating the magnetic paint onto a substrate and then placing the coated substrate in a magnetic field, thereby aligning the directions of the magnetic inorganic fine particles, followed by drying the substrate.
However, such prior methods of making the magnetic recording mediums are not preferred for obtaining a high density recording medium because they contain a large amount of non-magnetic synthetic resins as binder. Furthermore, the entirty of the magnetic fine particles cannot easily be oriented due to the viscosity of the binder in the prior methods.
As a further one of the prior techniques will be illustrated below a method of manufacturing a pattern of an inorganic material.
In this prior method, a given inorganic material is vapor deposited onto a substrate to form an inorganic thin film, then a predetermined pattern is provided on a photoresist through a photoresist process, and the inorganic thin film is etched over the photoresist as mask. Then, the photoresist is removed to form the inorganic pattern.
However, the prior methods in which the inorganic pattern is formed indirectly through a mask of photoresist comprise complicated process steps.